“I didn’t quite understand what that meant and I went, okay,” chuckled Sanderson. “Then I got impressed when I started seeing the numbers.”

The Irving Facebook page was launched eight months ago. Since then, more than 1,000 animals have been rescued or adopted. That’s double the normal rate for that time period.

“We’ve sent animals to Kentucky, Las Vegas, New York, Florida and all around the U.S. because of this page,” said shelter employee Natalia Maravi.

The Facebook page is also brutally honest. It includes an “urgent animals” section that shows the dates that dogs are scheduled to be euthanized. Irving Animal Services say when visitors see that, they’re more likely to adopt.

Shelter officials say the success of Facebook has been overwhelming. Only one percent of the hundreds of animals that have graced the page have been put down, so far.

With nearly 5,000 Facebook friends, the city-run shelter is receiving calls from other shelters across the country, seeking advice on how to set up their own Facebook pages.